NORMAL — Illinois State said renaming floors of a popular campus residence hall is "a positive step toward reflecting our university’s core value of inclusion.”
President Larry Dietz today announced the changes at Watterson Towers, which opened in 1968. The high-rise residence hall consists of 10 “houses” named after the first 10 former U.S. secretaries of states (Van Buren, Madison, Clay, Marshall, Adams, Pickering, Monroe, Randolph, Smith, Jefferson). Of those 10, eight actively took part in the system of slavery.
“The path seeking social justice has circled back to the historical artifacts that continue to reflect our country’s pattern of intolerance and systemic racism,” Dietz said. “Over the past several months, America has re-examined many symbols of bigotry — statues, monuments, flags, plaques, and works of art — and has removed them in a mass demonstration of support for equality and social justice.”
The move comes in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Asking students to live in places that carry the names of those who represent centuries of oppression and systemic injustice becomes part of the trauma that racism inflicts on people every day,” said Interim Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion Doris Houston. “This change is a positive step toward reflecting our university’s core value of inclusion.”
